Dark Secret - Avelyn Paige Page 0,37

and these fuckers know we’re onto them.”

In theory, I understand what he’s saying, but that doesn’t answer my direct question. “Why do you have them following me?”

“Are you listening to me?”

I slam my fist down on the dash. “Damnit, Wyatt! Why are they following me?”

“Because you’re mine!” he shouts. “And because you’re putting yourself in danger. It was a stupid fucking move, so I want to make sure you’re safe.”

You’re mine. Those two words extinguish my anger the minute he speaks them. Does he mean that? Does he still want me? After everything I’ve done to him and Hayden by keeping them apart, does he truly still want me?

“Shelby?” he urges, his voice softer.

“Yeah?”

“Come home, baby. Just… come home.”

Warmth washes over me. Mine. Baby. Home. “Okay.”

I’m still pissed, but now I’m pissed remembering just what it was about Wyatt that made me fall in love with him in the first place.

Hashtag

I have no idea what Shelby was thinking going back to that house, let alone to Martinsville, on her own. I know she needed to get out of her own head and worries for a while, but her decision put her in danger. Had Priest and Burnt not been keeping tabs on the place for the kid at Judge’s request, I could have lost her too. Once was enough. I’m not prepared for it to happen again.

I wait anxiously outside the clubhouse for a glimpse of her car to pull into the parking lot when Karma walks by and takes notice. He shifts direction, grinning his stupid fucking grin as he approaches me.

“You look like someone shit in your cereal. What did Shelby do now?”

“Priest found her driving by the Martinsville house.”

Karma busts out in a hearty laugh, and I sneer.

“Shit hasn’t changed one bit with her. When you say zig, she zags.”

“You’re not kidding. I don’t know what got into her.”

He smiles. “You did, and now there’s two of you. The world will never be the same again.”

Shelby’s car pulls into the parking lot at last, and relief washes over me. Her purple hair peeks out from the open door, but it’s her face I notice first, and she’s pissed. Great.

“Go easy on her, man. But if you don’t, I have fifty on her in the first round.”

Karma walks off just as Shelby gets to me. I raise my hand up to stop her from unleashing on me outside. We don’t need an audience for what I have to say to her. I lower my hand, grab hers, and drag her along behind me until we reach my room and close the door.

“You’re having me followed,” she snarls. Ding. Ding. Round one.

“No. Judge put the prospects on the house.” That’s the truth. When they spotted her driving by the house, I had them tail her for her own protection. “Why the fuck did you go there? You know Martinsville isn’t safe, yet there you were.”

She paces the floor in front of me. “I couldn’t just sit here anymore and watch you play games. We’re getting nowhere fast, and every second we’re not out there looking for her, we're losing out on our chance of finding her.”

“Is that what you think? That I’m just sitting here playing games? I’m doing what I can to attract the people who’ve taken our daughter. I’ve gone without sleep, trying to bait them into contacting me. Outside of finding that kid, which is like looking for a needle in a fucking haystack, this is our lead now. Judge has our guys watching every single place this kid might go.”

“I can’t just sit here and do nothing. Hayden’s out there, scared, and I can’t do a damn thing to help her.”

“Then let me do it. Let me take on your worries and your burdens. We can’t find her if you and I are on opposite pages. We have to be a united front—a family.”

“There’s that word again—family.” She says it like it’s the dirtiest word in the English language.

“We are a family, Shelby. There’s no going back. I won’t live my life without my daughter being a part of it. Hayden isn’t going to go back to living without a father again, and I want you to be a part of that.”

All the anger and fear drains from her and she stops, her eyes filling with hope. “After everything I’ve done, you still want us to be a family?”

“Jesus, Shelby, I’ve always fucking loved you. How can you not see that?”

“No, you can’t love me,